Category Archives: Wanderings

Birds, PSA, Snapshots, Wanderings

Migratory restlessness

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There is always something to savor at Cape May… any day, in any weather, at any season… something is always making its way through the skies overhead.

The time that holds the greatest interest for me is from late August until the middle of November: the fabled fall migration period. The variety of habitats: ocean and bay, salt marsh, freshwater ponds, dark swamps, woodlands and upland fields all attract a diverse array of migrants… hordes of butterflies and dragonflies, hawks and falcons, shorebirds, songbirds, bats, seabirds, owls – you name it!

Conveniently, the New Jersey Audubon Society throws out the welcome mat at one of the best times to experience migration at Cape May for its Autumn Weekend this year on October 24, 25, and 26.

Some of The Flock are getting restless and making preliminary plans to attend. Susan and KatDoc are driving from Ohio (and will hopefully avoid a stop in Camden), Lynne, I think, will cash in the ticket she bought last year and fly all the way from Minnesota (Yay!).

Other Flock members are saving their pennies for New River in April, but maybe they can be convinced otherwise. Mary, Delia, Susan, Nina, Ruthie, Jayne (can that be? Really, you’re gonna come?) – why not join us in Cape May, too? That farmhouse in W. Va. is gonna be pretty crowded and loud I think!

I’m also thinking maybe we should harass Larry into making the trip or Dave (hey – Alaska’s not that far and we could all get to meet Ghost!). Maybe Bobbie could join us for lunch and what about Heather in Pa.? The more the merrier!

😉

I’ll sneak away there at least once before October – for the Monarchs that breeze past the lighthouse or the falcons that scream down along the dunes. I just can’t resist… there’s something in the air.

Birds, I like to make lists, Wanderings, Wildflowers

Adirondack round-up

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Our last day in the Adirondacks (three weeks ago already!) was the best weather-wise for a visit to Whiteface Mountain. We’d waited around for a couple hours for the clouds to clear, visited a few favorite bug-infested spots, and then made our way to the toll road entrance at the bottom of the mountain. The weather board didn’t have very promising news: zero visibility and a balmy 52 degrees at the summit.

Many years, the little stone building there has a wonderful collection of moths in attendance, including Luna moths, but there were none this year. I’ll never forget the time we watched a little chickadee carry off a Luna twice its size.

😉
The views of balsam and spruce going up were lovely; we’d stop every couple turns around the mountain, add a layer of clothing, listen for birds and pile back into the vans.
Scott found a nice patch of Clintonia for me, also called Bluebead Lily. A poor picture of a very pretty little wildflower.
The higher we went, the more the clouds encroached on us. At this point, some of the group hiked the rest of the way to the summit; us really bird-oriented people stayed behind and listened for Bicknell’s Thrush.

😉
Our view from the summit: somewhat disappointing considering how far one might see from this spot. I did manage to spot a speck bird that turned itself into a Bald Eagle; that was nice to add to the trip list!
The obligatory group photo at the top of the world.

Trip List (compiled by Scott):

Birds (1st # indicates the # of days recorded/2nd # indicates highest daily total or estimate):

Canada Goose (4/30)
Wood Duck (2/4)
Mallard (4/6)
Ring-necked Duck (1/2)
Hooded Merganser (2/8)
Common Merganser (2/2)
Ring-necked Pheasant (1/1)
Ruffed Grouse (1/3)
Wild Turkey (3/3)
Common Loon (1/1)
American Bittern (1/1)
Great Blue Heron (4/15)
Black Vulture (1/2)
Turkey Vulture (3/x)
Osprey (3/2)
Bald Eagle (1/1)
Sharp-shinned Hawk (1/1)
Cooper’s Hawk (2/1)
Broad-winged Hawk (2/2)
Red-tailed Hawk (3/2)
Am. Kestrel (1/4)
Killdeer (2/5)
Ring-billed Gull (4/4)
Herring Gull (2/1)
Rock Pigeon (4/x)
Mourning Dove (4/x)
Chimney Swift (4/18)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (3/4)
Belted Kingfisher (2/2)
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (2/12)
Hairy Woodpecker (2/3)
Black-backed Woodpecker (3/3)
Northern Flicker (4/5)
Pileated Woodpecker (3/2)
Olive-sided Flycatcher (1/2)
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (2/2)
Alder Flycatcher (2/2)
Willow Flycatcher (1/1)
Least Flycatcher (2/5)
Eastern Phoebe (3/2)
Eastern Kingbird (2/2)
Blue-headed Vireo (3/12)
Red-eyed Vireo (4/15)
Gray Jay (1/1)
Blue Jay (4/x)
American Crow (4/x)
Common Raven (4/3)
Tree Swallow (2/4)
Barn Swallow (4/12)
Boreal Chickadee (1/2)
Black-capped Chickadee (3/6)
Red-breasted Nuthatch (3/20)
House Wren (2/2)
Winter Wren (3/12)
Golden-crowned Kinglet (2/10)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (2/4)
Eastern Bluebird (4/6)
Veery (2/2)
Bicknell’s Thrush (1/5)
Hermit Thrush (2/10)
American Robin (4/x)
Gray Catbird (2/4)
Northern Mockingbird (1/2)
European Starling (4/x)
Cedar Waxwing (4/14)
Nashville Warbler (3/20)
Northern Parula (3/14)
Yellow Warbler (1/2)
Chestnut-sided Warbler (3/5)
Magnolia Warbler (3/10)
Black-throated Blue Warbler (3/6)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (3/15)
Black-throated Green Warbler (3/8)
Blackburnian Warbler (3/12)
Pine Warbler (3/4)
Palm Warbler (2/3)
Blackpoll Warbler (1/4)
Black-and-white Warbler (1/2)
American Redstart (2/2)
Ovenbird (3/8)
Mourning Warbler (1/3)
Common Yellowthroat (4/10)
Canada Warbler (1/2)
Scarlet Tanager (2/2)
Eastern Towhee (1/2)
Chipping Sparrow (4/x)
Field Sparrow (1/1)
Savannah Sparrow (2/8)
Grasshopper Sparrow (1/2)
Song Sparrow (4/x)
Lincoln’s Sparrow (2/5)
Swamp Sparrow (3/15)
White-throated Sparrow (3/x)
Dark-eyed Junco (3/10)
Northern Cardinal (1/2)
Indigo Bunting (2/3)
Bobolink (1/4)
Red-winged Blackbird (4/x)
Common Grackle (4/x)
Brown-headed Cowbird (2/x)
Baltimore Oriole (1/1)
Purple Finch (3/5)
Red Crossbill (1/1)
American Goldfinch (4/x)
House Sparrow (4/x)
105 species

Butterflies:
Canadian Tiger Swallowtail
Black Swallowtail
Cabbage White
Pink-edged Sulphur
Summer Azure
Great Spangled Fritillary
Atlantis Fritillary
Silvery Checkerspot
Northern Crescent
Question Mark
White Admiral
Viceroy
Northern Pearly-eye
Common Ringlet
Monarch
Arctic Skipper
European Skipper
Indian Skipper
Long Dash
Hobomok Skipper
Common Roadside Skipper

Mammals:
White-tailed Deer
Woodchuck
Snowshoe Hare
Eastern Cottontail
Eastern Chipmunk
Red Squirrel
Gray Squirrel

Dog days, Snapshots, Wanderings, Whatever

A little Spencer love

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There’s a certain joy about dogs that I think maybe cat people don’t get, or not as fully as the rest of us. I look at this smiling pic of Spencer (our boot camp mascot from the Adirondacks trip) – wet and smelly from rolling around in the bog – and I can’t help but smile myself. He had a small army of admirers in us and was a good tonic during the quiet times or when some of us (me!) were feeling cranky. I like the company of a dog in the woods or a walk on the beach and I’ve missed the quiet, well-behaved sort of companionship that an older dog provides since Buddy died last summer. Luka is fun on walks, but he’s not quiet enough for birds yet and insists on being the center of any attention with his goofiness. His specialty so far is comic-relief. (He’s doing donuts on the bed as I type this!)

Anyway… it was fun to have Spencer along and he was properly spoiled by us all. Someone was always sneaking him a bite of lunch or quietly cajoling him into some mischief.

He made himself a favorite photographic subject of mine and would often follow my attention on a particular patch of wildflowers (here, bunchberries) with his own sort of joyful attention. Like a good dog, Spencer did a lot of rolling in stuff.

That rolling around and looking cute was a ploy of his and he used it to his advantage whenever possible. How can anyone resist a three-legged dog having so much fun?

Don’t let the doleful expression fool you – that’s another ploy! He’s just trying to get you close enough for a splash.

One of my favorite pics from the trip – I think Linda’s smile says it all. She’s a dog person, obviously. She gets it.

😉

Snapshots, Wanderings, Whatever

Shades

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azure moss sapphire forest cobalt fern navy kelly cerulean emerald indigo tea cornflower shamrock sea denim pine midnight army periwinkle pine sky hunter steel jade tiffany olive ultramarine celadon baby camouflage turquoise

Have I missed any?

Do you know that some world languages don’t make the distinction between blue and green in the same way we English speakers do?

Easy for me to imagine when looking over the photos I took. On that last day in the Adirondacks, we spent the morning hours waiting for the clouds to move off the top of Whiteface Mountain so we could make our way up. Those clouds and the shadows they moved over the forest and lakes rendered it all very beautiful in varying shades of blue and/or green.

Birds, Snapshots, Wanderings

More Adirondack treats

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We spent all day Sunday on dirt roads bisecting land owned by various paper companies – no electrical or phone lines, no cell towers, nothing but miles and miles of forest. I’d about had it by noontime, when this really started to feel like birding boot camp, but things picked up and the weather finally cleared and the darn bugs gave it a rest.

😉

Plus, there were new wildflowers and other nerdy people to enjoy them with.

Viper’s Bugloss: a pretty roadside weed. That gorgeous shade of blue gives away its place in the borage family.

Scott thigh-deep in ferns trying to call in Barred Owls: no luck, but he managed to really t-off a family of Sapsuckers. They are very excitable birds!

We found a real treat late in the day; begging calls from a dark swampy place off the side of the road led us to this baby Black-backed Woodpecker. If you squint your eyes you can see one of the parents feeding it at the nest entrance. Click on the pic! We also had really nice looks at Ruffed Grouse – a hen with two chicks along the side of the road.

Dogbane was just coming into flower and drew in this Atlantis Fritillary…

and lots of Clearwing Moths which are impossible to photograph well, I think.

Prettiest bird of the day was this singing Mourning Warbler – a gorgeous and cooperative male photographed by Scott. You knew already I didn’t take that pic, right?

😉

At day’s end, I guilted the others into the obligatory group shot. Note Spencer in the foreground snapping up bugs!

Snapshots, Wanderings

Butterfly, you float on by…

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Oh kiss me with your eyelashes tonight
Or eskimo your nose real close to mine
Well butterfly you landed on my mind
Actually landed on my ear, but you crawled inside
and now I see you perfectly behind closed eyes
I want to fly with you, but I don’t want to lie to you…
White Admirals were everywhere, puddling on the dirt roads and fluttering through the sunlit woods. White Admirals are considered the northerly form of Jayne’s more southern Red Spotted Purple. Where their ranges overlap they tend to hybridize and keep us all guessing.
Birds, Wanderings

An afternoon at Paul Smith’s

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The Adirondack Interpretive Center is a favorite spot of mine, but visiting it seems to be reserved for rainy days only. After surviving the morning at Bloomingdale Bog, the prospect of napping away the rainy afternoon was pretty tempting, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to visit the area around Paul Smith’s. The hiking trails are beautiful, even in the rain, as they showcase what a healthy forest ecosystem looks like. I’m used to seeing woods overbrowsed by deer and full of poison ivy and honeysuckle. Not so in the Adirondacks. The understory is covered in ferns, wildflowers, and unidentifiable fungi. Any help with this one, Jennifer?

It was an excellent time for wildflowering – the spring was late, so I was treated to things that should already have been past bloom. Twinflower is a dainty little thing and was a favorite of Linnaeus, hence it’s latin name Linnaea borealis. I also found Teaberry and Starflower and Blue-Eyed Grass and huge patches of Bunchberry.

The Adirondacks seem to have the perfect climate for Lupines and other garden flowers. Imagine a field of Lupines and Orange Hawkweed with the High Peaks as a backdrop. Gorgeous! Most well-maintained homes and the storefronts in Lake Placid have huge window boxes full of flowers that wouldn’t last a minute here in NJ’s humidity. I’ll admit to some healthy gardener’s envy! (Though I imagine they can’t grow tomatoes worth a crap.)

😉

Homes in the less-touristy areas are… um, interesting. We spend a lot of time in out of the way places and a drive through Onchiota on the way back to our hotel treated us to a house (?) covered with signs like this. Interesting, no? (This was probably the least offensive of the lot.)

A couple people took naps inside the center or watched the birdfeeders, but most of us braved the rain for a walk to the pond and marsh. Best bird here was an American Bittern that flew lazily over the boardwalk. There were some nice dragonflies and Spatterdock was blooming, too.

Birds, Snapshots, Wanderings

Bloomingdale Bog

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Hmm… let’s see. I was in the Adirondacks for 4 days and took 244 photos. Assuming that at least half of those are total crap and that I post an average of 5 pics a day, that means you’ll have to listen to me ramble on about this quickie trip for about a month.

Thank your lucky stars I won’t be subjecting you to that.

😉

Except for a few special stories or images, there’s really no other way to do this than day by day. So turn your head if you haven’t the stomach for it. I’ll try to be quick.

We spent Saturday morning in a place called Bloomingdale Bog. The name might sound familiar to some because there was a Northern Hawk Owl there a couple winters ago… I know a few people who made the trek up to see it. Bloomingdale Bog strikes fear in my heart because it’s usually so infested with mosquitos and black flies that it’s a horrendous way to waste time birding, but the bugs were tolerable this year. It’s a great place to find boreal birds.

Bunchberry… my absolute favorite flower from the northwoods… it likes shady, moist acidic soil and was in bloom almost everywhere we went. Down on my knees to photograph them was like looking at a tiny forest of miniature dogwood trees. I wish I could grow this at home.

The soft needles of a tamarack twig… these turn gold in fall and then drop for the winter. Love ’em!

While I was poking around in the leaf litter with the camera, the rest of the group was birding. Imagine that! I don’t know what they were listening for, but they eventually found one *must-see* bird on the trip…

Here they are looking at a Black-backed Woodpecker way up in the top of a black spruce snag. Cool bird… I’ll have some pics to share on another day.

What’s neat to me about a boreal bog is how similiar the plant life is to what I find in the Pine Barrens here in NJ. Those little red bits are British Soldier Lichen amid some type of star moss and reindeer lichen. Star moss is common in the Pine Barrens, but the British Soldiers are a good find there.

Sheep Laurel is also really common in the Pine Barrens, but it was putting on a gorgeous show there in the misty bog. Lest you think I spent all my time goofing off looking at plants, you should know that I was one of only two people to see a Gray Jay – and we saw it only because we were goofing off looking at flowers. So there.

Aww… this is Spencer and he had a grand time in the Adirondacks! A great little dog brought along by someone in our group – he provided much needed boredom relief when the birding was slow. And yes, there’ll be more pics of Spencer.

So… that was Saturday morning before lunch. The birds had been good – Black-backed Woodpecker, Gray Jay, Boreal Chickadee, singing White-throated Sparrows and Juncos (what a treat to hear them in summer!) and Lincoln’s Sparrow. Oh! Forgot to mention that I finally get to add Pileated Woodpecker to my life list – about time, I think. We spotted it along the road just outside of Lake Placid.